Nirvana, Fugazi, and GWAR walk into a cornfield... no punchline, just pure punk mayhem.
In the mid-1980s outside this college town, home of the Kansas Jayhawks, punk rock history was being made in the middle of a cornfield. Where the pavement turned to gravel, in a small, primitive cinder block building, bands like Fugazi, the Melvins, Rollins Band, Gwar, the Circle Jerks, Body Count, Social Distortion, Bad Brains, White Zombie, Descendents, Sonic Youth, Green Day, Fishbone, the Meat Puppets, Helmet, and Nirvana played to all-ages crowds, a raucous scene of misfits and anarchists on the margins of youth culture. This was The Outhouse. Small, dark and sometimes dangerous, it quickly gained a reputation as a haven for the bands other venues were afraid of, and the kids who loved them.
Acting
Henry Rollins and Ice-T talking shit with genuine reverence.
Production
Miraculous archival footage from a place nobody thought to document.
Direction
Brad Norman clearly lived this; no detached observer energy here.
Director
Brad Norman
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The Outhouse operated during the exact window when all-ages punk venues were being systematically shut down nationwide by fire codes and NIMBYism.
The building still stands near Lawrence—now apparently used for storage, which is somehow more insulting than demolition.
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